The Psychology of Quality and More

Checklist

Checklists are very useful process management devices to ensure that appropriate attention is paid to tasks that might otherwise be forgotten. You can put various levels of enforcement on checklist items, such as:

• Must be completed
• Must be considered, but not mandatory
• If not done, requires given level of approval
• If not done, this should be communicated to others
• If not done, requires approval for a 'waiver'
• If not done, the date by which it will be done should be given

A good test of whether checklist items are considered properly is to ask people to sign the list. However, this is also a good test of the fear in the culture: if people fear blame, they will be over-cautious and possibly delay the schedule whilst putting too much work to 'belt and braces (USA: suspenders)' their work to 'cover their backside'.

See also:

Toolbook chapter: Check Sheet